I'd like to get started with the Visual Studio 2010 SDK and creating integration packages. All I would like to do for now is provide a new project type and language service. However, I don't know how I should design it...
The package will provide an editor for a programming language that compiles for x86 or ARM processors. The problem is that there are a few language differences depending on which processor you're developing for. I'd rather not have a separate project type for each architecture, however. Preferably, the programmer chooses the architecture when they create the project and the package automatically loads up the specific parts such as the correct language service, configuration settings, and whatever custom tools and dialogs are associated with that architecture.
How would I go about doing this? I've read about "flavored projects", but I don't really understand how to implement them. Is that what I need?
A couple of points to note to get you headed in the right direction:
The interfaces for a language service to hook into the editor have completely changed for VS 2010. I would recommended asking questions on the VS Editor Forum where all the devs for the core VS editor hang out for the speediest answers since the documentation and samples are still incomplete at this point. (There is a compatibility layer to support "old" language services, but you'd be better off just using the new interfaces since you're starting from scratch.)
A "flavored project" (referred to in the docs as a Project Subtype) is a way to add/remove functionality from an existing project system. For example, there is are project flavors for Web Projects, WPF, Devices, Database, etc.... on top of CSProj and VBProj. In these cases C# and VB are the "base" project systems and WPF, Web, Database are flavors that extend the base C#/VB project systems. Since you have a custom language, you should implement your own base project system. Your best bet for starting from scratch would be to build something based off the MPFProj source library.
I'm working on something very similar -- here is my starting point:
http://blogs.msdn.com/noahric/archive/2010/02/15/markdown-part-4-outlining.aspx
It's a very nice example of how to implement an editor extension.
Related
I am a developer who has developed applications in Java from the beginning. But now I have to switch into C#. Even though those two languages are quite similar, I find it difficult to get used with the IDE; which is the Visual Studio.
I have used Eclipse and NetBeans for the projects I have done using Java. Coming from them, I find the Visual Studio environment different in big manner.
I am trying to develop a simple application which has 3 separate layers of coding like Model-View-Controller. In fact I am developing a WPF application. In that, I need my view code to be in a one layer, data models and all the database related stuff in another separate layer and the code in between the View and the model in a separate layer.
In java, When we use Eclipse or NetBeans, what we do is we create 3 separate packages for those 3 layers. But I cannot figure out how to create different packages in Visual Studio. As I see, in C#, namespaces are used instead of packages. Isn't it? But I don't know how to create different namespaces and different classes in those namespaces. (Just like we create a new class inside the packages created in Eclipse)
I am bit confused here in this case. How can I create different packages (or namespaces) in Visual Studio & how to create the project structure as I need ?
Thank You..!
I see that MS has documentation on how to implement nesting projects when implementing new project types. While this looks do-able, I'd rather not write and maintain my own VS extension if I can avoid doing so. Is there any "generic" project type already implemented by some extension that will allow project nesting? The idea would be that the parent project does nothing but include its children and allow building, adding references, etc.
Managed Package Framework for Projects is for Visual Studio 2013 and includes "a project system that supports nesting" (see the NestedProject sample). I have not tried it myself, though I did look through it a while back (the VS 2010 version) and it has thorough documentation.
It may or may not be as extensive as what you are looking for. From the overview in the documentation:
Creating a new project type in Visual Studio is complex task. Using MPF_Proj is a good starting point for creating custom project types in Visual Studio written in managed code but there are limitations that would have to be considered before using the framework.
MPF_Proj is not a .NET library. It is rather a framework of source files (classes, utilities etc.) that can be included in a VSPackage project.
I've been writing C/C++ for years using Xcode and am very comfortable with *nix systems. Now I'm working with people who only understand Windows; I've decided to try to learn that environment too.
I was thinking that google would be my best friend, but even the terminology for VS is sufficiently orthogonal to that of Xcode that I can't make any headway. (E.g., what's the equivalent of "Add new Target to project" for VS?)
Can anyone point me to a guide to VS for Xcode practitioners? I've seen lots of translators going the other direction.
Thanks!
I do not know of any XCode to VS Guide, but according to XCode Documentation:
A target specifies a product to build and contains the instructions for building the product from a set of files in a project or workspace.
The analogous concept in Visual Studio would be a project. In Visual Studio, a project contains code files, assets and settings which compile into an output of some sort. (Could be an executable, a DLL, a website, or a few other options...) Projects can reference other projects or other external libraries (System or user libraries) which are all delivered together at compile time.
A solution contains multiple projects which can be related (referenced) and compiled and linked together.
When you first start VS, it will ask you to Open or Create a project. It usually will automatically create a solution and automatically add the project to it. To add additional projects, you can right click the solution in the "Solution Explorer" and add another project.
Hope this helps
I believe what you're looking for is the Build Configuration Manager in Visual Studio. (It's been a while since I've used XCode). As I recall a "Target" in Xcode is how you want the project built. In VS you get a Debug and Release configuration by default but you can use the Build menu and choose "Configuration..." to create more.
I don't know of a tutorial for XCode users but Kate Gregory has some nice beginner screencasts on pluralsight for using Visual Studio 2010. Those may get you over some learning curve hurdles. I think they have a 30 day free trial. If you move on to .NET development they have a lot more that can really help you get up to speed quickly.
Quick Terminology
In Visual Studio you typically create a Solution. A solution can consist of any number of Projects. You can add projects for .DLLs (libraries), services, applications (gui and console based). You can have multiple applications but can only designate one as the Startup Project.
In my typical project I start with the GUI and Add a project of the type I want. Then I often add a library project for new code that I think I can use across multiple applications. Existing code in both supplied libraries and ones you've built are added as References. You can right-click on References in the Solution Explorer and select Add References.
In XCode (when I used it) your IDE consisted of two pieces, XCode and Interface Builder. In Visual Studio you can build interface elements directly in Visual Studio ( but there is also a tool called Blend that allows for UI creation and modification). There are THREE major types of interfaces web (usually an ASP.NET application), WinForms and WPF. I think of WinForms as the equivalent of what you build in IB. WPF is the most recent addition and has lots of advantages but a somewhat steep learning curve.
This is probably oversimplified because VS does so much and I'm mostly familiar with the C# and C++/CLI capabilties. However it also supports Visual F#, Iron Python, Iron Ruby, Visual Basic, Sharepoint, Office Integration,Silverlight, XNA, etc.
Visual Studio is very extensible. There are lots of extensions to make it integrate with other tools. There are also a couple of extremely useful extensions that make refactoring and writing code easier, my personal favorite is ReSharper from JetBrains.
We have a set of VS 2008 packages which leverages custom Project/Item templates, designers around XML files for our in house product development using VS. We are planning to move to VS 2010 and looking for migrating our VS 2008 packages to 2010. I see that there has been a rewrite of VS from ground up using WPF/MEF, but still could not figure out how we can leverage it for our packages. I am seeing some guidelines, samples and community material on how we should be extending the VS 2010 WPF based text editor, but could not find any reference implementations on how one should implement a custom designer on top of XML using the WPF/MEF APIs of VS SDK.
Only sample I have come across regards to any custom designer implementation so far was Example.XmlWpfDesigner - http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/Designer-View-Over-XML-20a81f17 which does not talk anything about WPF/MEF way of doing custom designers.
Has anybody come across any reference implementations along these lines? Any help regarding this would be much appreciated.
Thanks,
Siva
The sample you linked to is the right one to be looking at for a designer over an XML file. It is a WPF-design surface that edits VSTemplate XML files.
The only part of the VS API's that moved to MEF in VS 2010 was the core text editor. While you are welcome to use MEF for the implementation details of your designer, you'll still need to talk to the VS COM API's to do things like buffer management, interfacing with Source Control interfaces, etc...
I'm curious about your thoughts on moving to a new IDE (specifically Eclipse). I have been hearing wonderful things about it from this community and I'm always on the lookout to try new things.
Currently I'm running Visual Studio 2005, with a bunch of external commands loaded (for compiling down to a binary, running lint, etc). We're developing C code for microcontrollers.
I've read over some of the other threads on here about the advantages and disadvantages to Eclipse and Visual Studio (specifically SO - best IDE thread and SO - best C IDE thread), but I'd like to hear your thoughts on using it for programming an embedded environment. I'd imagine that there is a simple way to use the external tools that Visual Studio currently uses (it simply calls various batch files that we've created).
Is it worth it to specifically switch over to Eclipse?
Answer to you question about way to call external tools: no problem - from eclispe you can anything: external program, batch file etc. Moreover, if you use custom build generator - you could use it transparent with eclipse.
I don't think I would switch from Visual Studio to Eclipse in hopes of getting a better IDE. Typically an embedded manufacturer makes plugins and toolchains that work specificially with Eclispe, that's what makes it worth using in the Embedded world. For example with the NetBurner plug-ins, when creating a new project you can just select New NetBurner Device Excecutable, or New NetBurner Library, all the default includes and libraries get set up for you and the proper cross platform tool chain is set up for you automatically. In the NetBurner case it also uses the Eclipse managed build process (as opposed to make files) which I find nice. There is also support for using make files if you prefer that option.
While I have a couple of tools set up to run as external tools (lint, an auto version updater, DOS prompt etc) most steps can be triggered from pre-build or post-build steps or there are many many add-ons for common needs like source code management, bug tracking, etc. There is great support for SVN, Trac and Mylyn for example. I use both VS2010 and Eclipse. I like them both but VS2010 is the better IDE. It's a little hard to compare because I do C# (and a little C++/CLI )in VS and C++ in Eclipse. That said, I wouldn't relish the though of trying set up VS to do my embedded tasks.